And there is really enough of it in Cotonou. It’s a city that is so amazingly polluted from all its Zemi-Johns (taxi-motos) and other crazy drivers on the chaotically overcrowded roads that every opportunity to get out of the city had become a greatly valued pleasure.So, why have we nevertheless stayed there for seven long weeks? Well, it’s because of Nico supporting a local micro finance institution. Originally he was meant to conduct just a few interviews of people having received a micro credit. Though before being able to start the interviews Nico ended up having to improve communication means and the data exchange between the micro finance institution in Benin and its partner in France and thus we stayed much longer than anticipated. The experience had been very interesting though for both Nico and I (I helped Nico with the interviews). We’ve learned a lot about micro financing, and were able to have many interesting discussions on development in Africa with various locals of different educational levels and also foreigners from various backgrounds.
Apart from this, Nico having been ill right at the beginning of our stay there and again at the end, as well as a month-long battle with the visa authorities to fight off their ungrounded demand for a fine – or perhaps better described as a ‘bribe’ - also contributed to the extended stay...
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